Is resistance to HIV treatment generally increasing with the length of time the virus has been around? Presumably, the longer the virus has been in a person's body, the more chance it has had to mutate into a resistant strain, am I right? if you were to catch it from someone who has already had treatment is it more likely to be a more resistant strain than catching it from someone who has never had treatment? The same goes with time; are you better off catching it from someone who has only had it a short while or someone who has had it for years? Just wondering and interested!!

Response from Dr. Holodniy

Development of drug resistant virus is a function of time of drug exposure and ongoing replication. So, you could be on a drug regimen for 4 years and not have any resistance if your viral load is undetectable (<50/ml). Alternatively, you could be on a drug regimen for 6 months with a detectable viral load and have resistance to all drugs in the regimen. Drug resistant virus is present in the untreated, infected population.

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